A Different Side of Things
by EastSeaFishy
Summary: Kyuhyun. Math. Kyuhyun's musings. Discoveries. A short Super Junior one-shot.


Disclaimer: I don't own Kyuhyun or Super Junior, and while parts of this story have some element of reality, there are a lot of things in this story that are not fact.

Kyuhyun + Math = Kyuhyun's musings + Discoveries

* * *

I looked down at my workbook. The page was densely populated with problems in thick bold type.

**x****2**** + 4x – 5 = 0. Solve for x. **

x = 5, 1. This was my life

**4x****2**** + 16x = 48. Solve for x.**

x = -6, 2. I do love math.

**8x****2**** + 80 = -56. Solve for x.**

x = -2, 5. But every day like this….

**4x****2**** – 10x = 84. Solve for x.**

x = 6, -3.5. It's getting dull.

**2x****2**** = 98. Solve for x.**

x = 7, -7. And these questions…

**2x****2**** = 44 + 3x. Solve for x.**

x = 5.5, -4. I want a challenge.

**-3x****2**** = 9 – 4x. Solve for x.**

x = … Huh?

**-3x****2**** + 4x -9 = 0**

This is more like it.

**x = (-4 plus/minus sqrt(16 – 4*3*9)) / (-6)**

Something inside has cracked.

**But sqrt(16 – 4*3*9) yields the square root of a negative number.**

I can't keep doing this.

… **Thus there is no solution.**

* * *

January 2, 2010. Yet another appearance on Star King. This type of reality show is incredible. People from all around the globe congregate here and try to win the favor of judges so that they may become the next Star King. It could jumpstart their careers in the entertainment business.

At the moment, I was seated on the stage, furthest left of five. Hodong announced that this next challenge would involve math. Math…

* * *

_I had done it. I made it onto the podium in the Chin Chin Singing Competition. To make things even better, SM Entertainment had signed me soon after. I was set to sing in a music video soon, a remake of DBSK's Hi Ya Ya. It was exactly what I wanted to be doing. That music video is what started off my career._

_Singing had become my number one passion. I wanted to get better, to improve until I could no longer improve. When SM Entertainment told me I would be joining a band called Super Junior, I was ecstatic._

_However, when I first walked onto stage as a member of the now largest boy band ever, I wasn't well received. My debut performance was, at best, fun. But a debut performance should be more than that. It was supposed to be exciting, thrilling, even the best day of my life. Well, at least it wasn't dull and boring._

_A few months along the line, Super Junior fans began to accept me._

* * *

I was jolted out of my reminiscence by two clear tones, which signaled the start of our competition. Pitted against three young mathletes and another fellow singer, the aim was to write down the sum of all the numbers that flashed before our eyes.

The second the last number left the screen, all three children picked up their markers and wrote their answers on their mini whiteboards. Before getting started on my addition, I glanced over at the girl on my right.

* * *

"_Kyuhyun-ah, have you finished all your work?"_

"_Yes, I have. Thank you for your guidance." I walked out of the classroom and into the hallway._

"_Yah, Kyuhyun! You ready, you smartass?" My friends had been waiting for me outside in the hall as I prepared for the competition that had made big news around our school._

"_Our little Kyuhyunnie, growing up and winning it big…" My friends teased me. "But really, it's amazing that you got to the finals… I mean, I've never seen you answer a math problem wrong before!"_

"_It's… nothing," I responded. Our talk switched gears and soon we were talking about plans for the weekend. As my friends chattered on about how they would celebrate for me when I won the competition, I glanced apathetically at the screen of a television in a store. Across it danced members of H.O.T._

* * *

My eyes returned to my whiteboard. I saw myself in those children, but there was one crucial difference. They could go on with a life in math, just like that, and love it. It was wonderful.

* * *

_Although I had looked without much interest at the time, I started wondering what was so great about singing and dancing a few days after noticing H.O.T. on the screen. I had at one point decided to research them on the Internet, and that search yielded significant results. H.O.T. had a lot of fans. At first, I had always thought that boy bands gained popularity because of their looks. But after listening to H.O.T. sing, I realized otherwise. They were talented men, able to sing and dance at the same time, and in front of a huge audience expecting them to work wonders._

_It was at that point that I decided to pick up singing. I learned one of the H.O.T. songs, Candy, without anyone knowing. On the day before the competition, I was mindlessly humming it while I was waiting for one of my friends. Without my knowledge, he crept up behind me, planning to scare me. Instead, he was taken aback._

"_Kyuhyun! Since when did you start singing? You have such a nice voice… you could get all the girls! I wish I could sing like that… or even hum without breaking everyone's eardrums…"_

_That gave me confidence. By the time the competition came around, I performed at my peak, but my mind wasn't thinking about math. I swept away the victory, but as the MC awarded me the trophy, my mind was already back in my room, thinking about the next song I would learn to sing._

* * *

The results were in. The children were spot on. And I… I was one off. But despite my outer show of disappointment, I was happy. This was the first time I had ever gotten a problem wrong.

"Just one!" My finger gestured as I put my head down into my arms and pretended to cry. But that one finger also symbolized something else. It was my first time getting a problem wrong, my first time being beaten at math, and my first time seeing a different side of things.

* * *

Author's Notes: This is the first Super Junior Fanfiction I've written without a prompt. I don't think it turned out as wonderfully as I would have liked it to, but eh...

EDIT: Fanfiction won't let me use superscripts. So no exponents. Sorry for all the carets... And there's no plus/minus or square root symbol. It's all so clunky...


End file.
